


T is for Trade

by eilidh17



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-28
Updated: 2015-07-28
Packaged: 2018-04-11 17:39:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,442
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4445603
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eilidh17/pseuds/eilidh17
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Money for a life.  SG-1 rescues one of their own from a slave trader.</p>
            </blockquote>





	T is for Trade

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Fig Newton's Offworld Alphabet Soup. Many thanks to Dennyj for the super fast beta. Set anywhere between season 7 and 8.

**T is for Trade**

 

"It is a fair offer, no?"

There was no such thing as a fair offer when it came to trading in human lives, and in this case the trade was less than fair, it was offensive... and very personal. In this marketplace, on some forsaken backwater planet on the very edge of the known 'gate system, peddling lives to make a few dollars was considered having an honest job. Jack had fought all day to hold back the bile clawing up his throat, and the sense of foreboding that came with being so close to finding Daniel, only to have him yanked away at the last minute. They had been close before.

"Fair?" He sniffed loudly, trying not to let his revulsion to the foul stench of the market place, where the human stock defecated in their cages right alongside animals, show on his face. There were large metal cages piled all around him, one of top of the other, stretching so high that he had to crane his neck just to see where they ended. The ground underfoot was muddy, but there wasn't a cloud in the sky. No rain here on this desert planet. No, the mud was coarse sand mixed with urine. Most disturbing of all was that the locals, the traders and their working slaves, and those who came to barter for lives that cost barely the equivalent of a decent meal back on Earth, were totally oblivious to the misery that surrounded them.

It was the Tok'ra who told them about this place. The information had been gathered by one of their operatives who said Daniel could be found here at one of the many slave markets, if he hadn't already been sold. He had gone missing several months ago, on a mission with SG-16 to investigate a set of obelisks found on a planet once ruled by Osiris. All of SG-16 were found with their hearts ripped from their chests and their throats cut. Of Daniel, there was no sign, but whoever had taken him had known exactly what they were doing and who they had come to capture. He had been paraded, according to the Tok'ra operative who had been posing as a minor system lord at the time, from planet to planet by his captors, used like an advertisement for some wealthy slaver.   Only by the time the operative had seen him, Daniel was in no state to be anyone's poster boy. And the operative had no means to get word to the Tok'ra for several days after the sighting without blowing his cover. Stupidly, Daniel's captors had left a calling card for his sale in the form of an invite - the address to this world.

The little trader Jack was dealing with now, a man by the name of Har'up, was nothing but a mouthpiece for his boss; someone who made the sale, took the money and handed over the goods. It was a simple job, one Har'up seemed aptly suited for given his limited vocabulary and bad sense of smell.

"Yes, yes, fair!" Har'up said with gusto and a lot of head nodding as he waved up at the closest stack of cages. "Very fair. You pick?"

Jack would have taken them all given half the chance and a whole lot more of the local currency, but the Tok'ra had warned him to make only one purchase, and make it count. Anyone buying more than one slave would automatically gain the attention of whichever slave master owned the market, and if Daniel had been known enough to warrant kidnapping, then Jack's face would be just as recognizable. It was a risk, no less than bringing Teal'c with him, who, in the end, had been forced to stay in orbit in the Tel'tak the Tok'ra had given them, because the face of the Jaffa's most notorious shol'va would have probably landed them all in the sales ring.

Fortunately, and for which Jack was relieved, women were required to be covered here, so having Carter with him meant safety in numbers. And she was packing a mini-armament under her robes.

Choosing was the next problem. Jack knew who he wanted, but coming right out and saying it would bring them the sort of attention they didn't want, so he had to think fast.

"Tau'ri?" he said, making a show of inspecting the closest cages, ignoring the downcast eyes of the filthy and malnourished slaves, some of whom wore forehead tattoos of system lords who had fallen, and whose armies had either been taken as the spoils of war, or who had been unfortunate enough to be sold. Jack didn't think it was possible to see them here, given how arrogant the Goa'uld were, and how they lived off the backs of having the warriors of their enemies as their own.

"No, no. No Tau'ri here. Too expensive."

Jack stopped his inspection of the cages and turned back to Har'up, keeping his face as dead-pan as possible. "Too expensive?"

"Damaged. Too expensive. Here..." Har'up said with an almost theatrical sweep of an arm in the direction of a cage holding what Jack was sure were children, though huddled as they were it was hard to tell.   "Good boys. Very strong. Small price."

"No price," said Jack, struggling to maintain his composure, and the need to rip this guy limb from limb. "I don't buy kids, got it?"

"Sure, sure."

"Tau'ri?"

This time Har'up frowned, almost a grimace, and then looked around him as though someone might be listening in. He had a sudden look of fear on his face that had Jack worried. Next to him, he could just see Carter's eyes through the veil she was wearing. She was marking out the lay of the land, noting every cage, where it was, how many it held, and the quickest route out of here and back to the ring platform that had transported them here from the Tel’tak.

"Quickly," Har'up said quietly, gesturing to Jack to follow him, all the while looking about this small corner of the vast market place like he was being watched. "He is broken. Barock no more want."

"Broken?"

"Bent. Broken. He no good slave. Barock had me sell but no buyer want broken slave. Not pretty."

Jack swallowed hard. The Tok'ra warned them that the law here only allowed for male customers, and how many of those buyers bought only male slaves. No questions were asked, no heads turned. The deals were done and the buyers moved on to the next sale, usually in another city. It was the way they avoided the one slave rule that would keep suspicions about their purchase numbers hidden from curious eyes.

They were led away from the central market place and down an alleyway that was lined by more cages, only these were covered up.

"Empty," Har'up said as he ushered them towards a shanty building at what Jack thought was a dead end.

"Waiting to be filled?"

"Yes, yes! You learn well, for one who is no trader."

Jack stopped in his tracks and grabbed Har'up by the arm, spinning him around to face him. "No trader?"

"Tau'ri." Har'up waved over his shoulder towards the building. "You are Tau'ri, you come seeking Tau'ri. It is the order of things. Goa'uld seek Jaffa. We have many Jaffa."

"I saw."

"Yes, yes. I sell quickly. No symbiotes to give."

Har'up was clearly no fool. The rags he wore, the matted hair and unshaven face were just a facade for a man who, as far as Jack could tell, knew how to work the market to his advantage, and probably had sold more than just a few slaves out from under his boss' nose to make a modest living on the side. The quick turnover of Jaffa highlighted an underlying problem when it came to killing off of the Goa'uld: the ever-increasing lack of available symbiotes for implantation.

So, Har'up was probably writing off a healthy slice of the Jaffa as dead loss, lost without a symbiote to sustain them once the ones they were nurturing had reached maturity. When, in fact, he was selling them on at a reduced price and pocketing the profit.

Jack felt for the gun hidden in the belt of his trousers, shielded by the open robe he was wearing. It wasn't enough, not if it meant having to fight their way out of this place - something he really didn't want to do - but aside from whatever Carter was carrying, it was all they had. Har'up was no honest trader, not on a world where the economy was propped up by the cost of human misery.

Har'up lead the way once again, and opened up the rickety plank door of the shanty, letting the light from outside break through some of the darkness within. He stepped across the threshold and gestured for Jack to follow, but held up a hand when Carter got close to the door.

"No she," he said firmly and moved to get past Jack to block her way. "No she here. Not the way."

"Yeah," Jack said slowly and deliberately, "that's not going to happen."

"Please. No she. This is male slave hut. She safe outside. My place."

"Sir, I can wait out here." Carter put her right hand on her hip and tapped at the weapon concealed beneath. It was a sign, not only intended to reassure Jack, but, from the look on Har'up's face as he followed the movement of her hand, it also told him she was well armed.

"Five minutes, Carter. No more. You know what to do."

~oOo~

There were levels of human destitution that Jack didn't even think was possible. If the despair he saw in the eyes of the slaves in the market place was heartbreaking, then the sheer horror of watching those who had already passed the point of suffering and were waiting to die was something else completely.

Even Ha'rup had gone silent, his head bowed down as he shuffled between floor pallets that held the last vestiges of what once were human beings, their bodies twisted and tortured in such a way that Jack could scarcely believe they were still alive.   Skin stretched over frames like it had been pulled and pinned in place, eyes sunken into skulls, lifeless and unseeing. No clothes, no dignity.

"Har'up--"

"You want Tau'ri?"

"Yes, but--"

"Then I take you. You pay. I make profit. No questions."

Har'up continued forward, kicking at legs that got in the way, pushing them aside like branches of a tree that was slapping him in the face, while Jack fought to hold down his last meal as the stench of death and decay sat thick and heavy in the heat of the shanty.

"Here," Har'up announced as they came the end of the room, to a narrow door with a plank of wood across the front to keep it sealed. He slid the plank off and tossed it aside, and then turned to Jack with an outstretched hand. "You pay."

"Without seeing the goods first? What type of trader would I be if I didn't inspect the merchandise?"

Har'up held Jack's gaze for the longest of moments before pushing the door open.

Jack had seen Daniel bruised, bloody and bleeding. Heck, he'd seen him die more times than he'd care to recount, but this was completely different, and it took every ounce of self-control for Jack not to rush to his side. He needed to play the game. Enough interest to let the deal go through, but not so much as to further lend any suspicions Har'up might have as to why Jack was there in the first place, nor to give the man a reason to up the asking price. This was a numbers game where Jack held the money but the seller was holding goods far more valuable than he realized, a fact Jack didn't want to let known.

"You like?"

There was no liking what he saw laying on the pallet at his feet. The clearly SGC uniform, ripped, no, shredded in places, so bad that Jack didn't know how it hadn't already fallen off Daniel's clearly malnourished and beaten body. And then there were the stains, marks, of who knew what that Jack didn't even want to think about, though through the fabric he could see the telltale burn marks produced by being repeatedly struck with a pain stick. Daniel was curled in a ball on his right side, his head tucked under one painfully thin arm, but Jack could see enough of his face to recognize his teammate.

Jack wanted to kneel down next to Daniel and carefully move the fabric, assess whatever injuries he could see beyond the obvious, but he was worried about showing excess concern for someone that was supposed to be nothing more than merchandise.

"How was he broken?" Jack asked, using the toe of his shoe to gently nudge Daniel's leg in a mock show of disinterest, but silently hoping for some movement. He got nothing. At least he could see his chest rising and falling ever so slightly.

"No matter. He is your Tau'ri?"

"Nope, not mine."

"You said--"

"I said I wanted _a_ Tau'ri, I didn't say I was looking for _this_ one in particular. How was he broken?"

"He talk too much. Barock's man shut him up with pain sticks."

Sadly, and it took all of Jack's willpower not to smile, he could just picture Daniel talking away at breakneck speed, trying to get himself out of what was an impossible situation. "How much?"

"He talk?"

"No. How much do you want for him?"

"Barock ask two thousand litak."

"For damaged goods?"

"Was ten thousand when not broken."

"How much for a Jaffa?"

"You no want Tau'ri?" Har'up, suddenly angered by an apparent loss of sale, lashed out at Daniel only to have Jack yank him away at the last moment.

"I didn't say I don't want him! I asked how much a Jaffa was worth."

Har'up shrugged out of Jack's grasp and stepped back away from the pallet. "Two hundred," he ground out defiantly. "Less for the men. They symbiote older, no replacement."

"Bit of a difference."

"They are enemy."

"And the Tau'ri is?"

"Profit. Barock think he already dead."

"You told him?"

"He kill his man when Tau'ri broken. I tell Barock Tau'ri dead now. My profit."

So, that was how it all went down. Daniel had kicked up a fuss, enough of one that he became more than his captor could handle.

"And this is how you look after your profit?"

"He broken. I sell, I happy. No sell..." Har'up shrugged indifferently. "He die. Next slave."

"Two thousand?" Jack reached for the money bag in his pocket, testing the weight of the tiny gold balls through the fabric. Each ball was worth one hundred litak each, and the Tok'ra had given them the equivalent of four thousand litak in total. He was carrying two five, Carter had the rest.

"Two thousand. You want him cleaned? Cost more."

Check the tires, top off the gas tank, wax and polish. "Two is fine." Jack left five of the balls in his pocket and handed the rest over to Har'up, who stood there and counted each one, a broad smile on his dirty face that died almost instantly when the butt of Jack's Beretta caught him on the side of the head.

~oOo~

Daylight struck Jack square in the face as he stumbled out of the shanty with Daniel over his right shoulder. He couldn't see Carter at first, but let out a long breath when she walked out between two cages with her weapon drawn.

"Daniel," she whispered, quickly moving to Jack's side to check him out.

"Leave it, Carter. We need to get going."

"Shouldn't we cover him up?"

"We've got about ten minutes until Har'up wakes up with one hell of a headache and an axe to grind. No time for playing nursemaid, and I doubt there's anything you can do for him here. Get Teal'c on the radio."

They had to make it to the rendezvous point, a ring platform on the outer edge of the market place. Jack knew the way was relatively clear because it was only used by buyers, and by slavers who received their merchandise from orbiting ships. He anticipated their biggest problem being the amount of curious onlookers they would attract, especially at the sight of a master carrying a slave over his shoulder when this job normal fell to another slave.

"Already have, sir," Carter said as she tucked her weapon back under the folds of her robe, within easy reach but well out of sight. "There's another ship in orbit."

"And?"

"Rings lock on to the nearest platform. Teal'c is trying to get closer but the other ship has been sending people down since the moment it arrived."

"Offloading human cargo?"

"I wasn't going to go there, sir."

"This place gets top marks for human depravity, no need to get all sensitive on me."

They left the meager safety of the alley way and wound their way towards the outskirts of the city, garnishing, as predicted, a fair following of curious onlookers, some of whom stepped in their path but ultimately made no attempt to stop them. The ring platform sat to the right of a huge holding pen that was already full of shackled slaves, all being corralled by traders brandishing pain sticks and staff weapons. Uneasiness spread through Jack as he closed in on the corrals. He turned to Carter, who had already spotted several traders looking in their direction.

"Try Teal'c again," Jack said leaning in close and whispering to her. He shifted Daniel's weight on his shoulder and was greeted by a small but pathetic moan. Not enough for Jack to be sure he was waking up, but enough to be a problem if he did and actually recognized them.

Carter's "Ship has left orbit, sir" came just as the closest of the traders raised his weapon and started running in their direction, yelling at them in some language Jack didn't recognize. He took that as their cue to leave and, securing his grip on Daniel, let Carter fall behind to cover their six as he sprinted to the ring platform.  

"Now!" Carter yelled into the radio as she slid into home and fired off some warning shots into the ground, pulling her arm in at the last minute as the rings descended over them.

~oOo~

Jacob pulled the healing device back and stepped away from Daniel's bed in the underground bunker of the Tok'ra's latest base planet. "Selmac doubts Daniel had any idea of what was happening to him."

"Meaning?"

"Drugs. Lots of them. It's pretty standard for slavers and bounty hunters to resort to drugging their captives to make them more pliable."

"They beat him pretty bad," Jack said as he looked down at Daniel, who was still covered in bruises and unconscious.

"You know how this works, Jack. And Daniel is no stranger to having to talk himself out of a bad situation, even when he knows it might not make an ounce of difference. If Barock's asking price was right, then losing Daniel is a huge blow to his operation."

Jack gave Jacob a sideways glance, eyes slighted. "You've heard of this guy?"

"Barock? Yeah. Real piece of work. The planet you found Daniel on used to be part of Apophis' domain until it was annexed by a cartel of slave traders after they learned of his death. Your actions against Apophis gained you a bit a bit of notoriety."

"And put a price on our heads."

"This isn't your first run in with a bounty hunter."

"Aris had a conscience. Eventually."

Jacob shrugged and moved back towards Daniel's bed. "Selmac has repaired his internal injuries, and the rest will heal in time. You got lucky this time, Jack."

"Tell that to the families of SG-16. I really wanted to kill the guy."

"Barock?"

"Him too, but no... Har'up. Hand out my own brand of justice, which wouldn't have meant a damn thing in a place where one less slaver means more profit for the rest."

"You're better than that."

"No. I'm not. And we don't have the resources to shut these people down, but I do know who does."

Jacob tossed Jack a questioning look. "Anyone I know?"

"We saw some Jaffa slaves down there. Who better to free them than their own kind."

The End


End file.
